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Re:Consciousness as a State of Matter by mej10 on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @01:22PM (#7025364)
Now the question is, do meditators just hallucinate a feeling that gets processed into a memory of having achieved such a state?
Re:Consciousness as a State of Matter by webwanderings on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @01:25PM (#7025387)
By hallucinate you mean, not knowing what/where you are or doing, in that particular moment? Then yes, one can use that word. The simplest analogy of here-now is when you are watching an exceptional movie (as per your taste) and you get lost in those moments of watching. The same phenomenon is apparent in observing other forms of arts (songs, paintings etc).

So, are such states hallucination? Every person (human being) knows for sure that they are real.

Re:Consciousness as a State of Matter by yarou on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @02:48PM (#7026024)
Do humans "hallucinate" what is in front of them? It's fairly well understood that our visual cortex is the product of evolution. So we will see things as they are meant to be seen, by our visual cortex. This is completely different from what is really there.