# The Department of Positive Out of Body Possibilities **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 26, 2007, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521 "2007-03-26T08:57:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![harmless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@harmless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmless)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/21 "2007-03-27T02:15:40Z")
[QUOTE=Tim4848] Some of us might want some other options, than just living in Pleasentville \ [/QUOTE] That’s Pleasant_view_ and I’m frankly quite happy with it. If you have issues with it I suggest you try Strangetown or Veronaville, 1 or 2 clicks over to the right, respectively. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Tim4848](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tim4848](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim4848)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/22 "2007-03-27T02:28:39Z")
Did you not read the part about me having an open mind. I enjoy analyzing this topic with no emotions. I do not have a problem if we find that it can’t be done, but you are going to have to do a lot better than trying to down play it with nothing. I had no control comming into this world, I had no control when I had an OBE, and I will have no control when I die, and If we don’t put the correct tools in place now, I won’t have any control in communicating back either, which is kind of funny when you think about it, because i’m an introvert, and I don’t like communicating anymore than I have too. Why would you think there would be any good evidence so far anyway, We just got this technoligy in 2005. Please feel free to explain to me, what scientific evidence do we have. Scientist will be the first to tell you that at this point, they can not say for sure one way or the other. They do know that energy cannot be made or destroyed, it can only change form. Everyday people have electrical thoughts, but scientist don’t even know what is inside electric. If we decided to do reseach with this type of machine before another country does it, would you have a problem with that? It is not a fairy tale to try and look at this topic from different perspectives at different times in our life. I understand where you are comming from, and you seam to be very happy where you are at, and you probally won’t have to worry about it, because if it gets to scary for you, your electrical mind that can’t be destroyed, will take you out of pain and into pleasure in your thoughts, and you might get the opportunity to live an afterlife in a right brain, where all the fairy tails are. When I a woke out of my body, I was already by the ceiling, but I have read how other people come out of their bodies while they are awake, and they do sound like they are in their right brain. Thank you, Tim Thank you, Tim ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/23 "2007-03-27T02:46:07Z")
[QUOTE=Tim4848] We just got this technoligy in 2005. [/QUOTE] Which? A link to a news column would be good. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/24 "2007-03-27T02:55:58Z")
I suspect that the OP is referring to [this](http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/content/medicalproducts/braingate.jsp) device. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/25 "2007-03-27T02:58:18Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] I suspect that the OP is referring to [this](http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/content/medicalproducts/braingate.jsp) device. [/QUOTE] That’s funny, I thought the OP was referring to [this](http://www.timecube.com/) device. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/26 "2007-03-27T03:02:32Z")
[This](http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/) is another possibility. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/27 "2007-03-27T03:06:46Z")
Let me see if I follow this- a device allowing limited neural communication + your OBE = we have the ability to communicate with the dead Is that the gist of it? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/28 "2007-03-27T03:11:05Z")
Ahah, so if we can put a “:dubious:” mind-reading device “:dubious:” device on the head of someone and then “:dubious:” mostly-kill “:dubious:” them, then we’ll be able to watch the afterlife and talk with Houdini? ---
**Author:** ![Tim4848](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tim4848](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim4848)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/29 "2007-03-27T04:23:16Z")
Yes, that is the site I am talking about. Pretend you are in my position, and you truly believe this is possible, and that we need to race to make it happen before some other country does it. Maybe a country that already loves to get married under the Northern Lights, maybe a country that already read my info, and is doing something right now. Do you know that Cyberkinetics has already put some of there equipment in other countries already? What would you do to get the word out? What if you felt that only people that are trained on the machine, will have the best results in the future, and we won’t have those results, until they are put in that situation. They will have confidence, they will have past experience, they will know where the machine will be located. They will remeber a password that can be measured at a later date. Did you know that they have already had patients die, that have been trained on this machine? They died for other reasons, than being on the machine, but do you think they ever even thought of following through with my possiility? I understand that it is hard to believe in something that you can not see, I still can’t get over how there is an invisible force in air, but it is there, and you can’t destroy it, no matter how many atoms you try and split. I believe we need to get this information out, and let every person decide, if they would like to try this option or not. I realy do see more value in trying this, than I could ever see in bungy jumping. thank you, Tim ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/30 "2007-03-27T04:57:21Z")
Technology always will create greater and more terrifying potential for weapons and horrors, Tim. Overall, though, there’s not much to do about it other than to develop defense technologies hand in hand with them. And similarly, to trust that most of the people who are in a place to lead the nations of the world are rational beings. Overall you’re going to get better results by promoting democracy and the free market throughout the world than wearing a tinfoil hat. Of course the tinfoil hat will protect your brain from any enemy brain scanners in the meantime, so you might as well. But of course then people will laugh at you. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/31 "2007-03-27T05:05:01Z")
For the sake of factuality though, I’ll just point out that the sort of brain-sensor that Cyberkinetics is marketting can’t extract memories nor ideas from people’s heads. Memories and ideas are spread around the brain and, frankly, we don’t understand how they are stored, how they work, or how to go about figuring that out at the moment. Motor functions (telling your fingers to move, eyeballs to rotate, etc.) on the other hand are localized, so a simple (X,Y,Z) coordinate of where brain activity is going on can tell you what part of the body is supposed to move, in what direction. With practice, it seems to be that we can also teach our brain to command new “limbs”, so that instead of thinking “move my hand forward”, you can think “move the screen cursor up” and that will be an independant limb from your real ones, but still localised like a motor function. (As I understand it.) This might allow fighter pilots to be more accurate, but that’s about the limit of the technology in terms of reasons that we would care if other countries get their hands on it. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/32 "2007-03-27T05:24:04Z")
[QUOTE=Tim4848] Have you ever owned a machine? [/QUOTE] Yes > [@](#): > > Did it do what you wanted it to do? Definitely > [@](#): > > Did you ever find something else it could do? I dont see how that’s any of your business! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/33 "2007-03-27T05:32:29Z")
[QUOTE=Tim4848] Yes, that is the site I am talking about. Pretend you are in my position, and you truly believe this is possible, and that we need to race to make it happen before some other country does it. Maybe a country that already loves to get married under the Northern Lights, maybe a country that already read my info, and is doing something right now. Do you know that Cyberkinetics has already put some of there equipment in other countries already? [/QUOTE] If I were in your position, I would pretend to actually read what the machine does, and pretend that the machine doesn’t read minds-it translates thought into action. What I wouldn’t do is pretend that they have any intention of installing a “reverse” switch that somehow magically will make it do things it was never designed to do. Sorry, but “reversing the polarity” only works in badly written skiffy stories. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/34 "2007-03-27T06:18:24Z")
TIm, you might want to read through this page: [http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p45-para.html#Head\_3](http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p45-para.html#Head_3) And you might want to consider whether you should see a psychiatrist. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/35 "2007-03-27T07:13:18Z")
Ow. My brain hurts from reading this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/36 "2007-03-27T07:32:35Z")
That’s the general idea, as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/37 "2007-03-27T16:56:09Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] Ahah, so if we can put a “:dubious:” mind-reading device “:dubious:” device on the head of someone and then “:dubious:” mostly-kill “:dubious:” them, then we’ll be able to watch the afterlife and talk with Houdini? [/QUOTE] Man, did you ever see [Brainstorm](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/)? That’s an awesome movie. 'Course, it was good to begin with, and on top of that has Christopher Walken in it, who shares only with Jonny Depp the magical power of turning any movie he’s in to gold. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/38 "2007-03-27T17:15:39Z")
[QUOTE=Tim4848] I don’t know if you noticed, but we are not really good at new changes, it usually takes extra effort by our President, to make it a reality. Examples: Slavery = President effort Race to the moon = President effort Star wars technoligy = President effort Then I stuied the science side of it, and even went to a science web site to get their openions, and I was expecting them to set me straight, but they did not. [/QUOTE] \ Now, if we could just get Presidential effort into spellcheck. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim4848](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tim4848](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim4848)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521/39 "2007-03-28T02:54:36Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] \ Now, if we could just get Presidential effort into spellcheck. 😃 [/QUOTE] Thank you for all your input, and I will try and have a better post later this week, without all the spelling errors. Thank you, Tim [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-department-of-positive-out-of-body-possibilities/397521.md?page=1)