> > I had a revelation today. We apparently do have a consciousness, a spirit, whatever. And it's not your brain. And, like revelations typically do, it took a near-death expereince.
> >
> > [snip]
> > It was then that I had a conversation with my brain. I politely enquired as to what my body was doing, and it responded by telling me that it was making toward the floor. I was slightly stunned. I continued my enquiries by asking whether I had issued any orders, to be relayed through my brain, that would cause such a motion. It said that I had not. Clearly, I had a case of insubordination here. My brain was acting of its own accord, with complete disregard for the safety of its host body.
>
> Oh, I know you weren't really being serious (I do have to put that caveat in :-), but I'll ask just for argument's sake... What's consciousness got to do with your spirit here? And how can you conclude, in this anecdote, that it has nothing to do with your brain?
>
> What I think happened is you experienced a temporary visual dissociation of your body's spatial map and you got confused. Your brain keeps continual track, at all times, of all the sensory input coming from your body and limbs. It correlates the input against an internal and innate "map" of your body's orientation in space. Our eyes and our inner-ear canals (which let you keep your balance) are important in providing orientation information for the mapping. If you're fooled by an unexpected motion, or otherwise experience visual disturbances, you will get the impression that your body is dissociated outside of your brain's control. People who are prone to so-called "out of the body" experiences probably have disturbances in their sensory spatial processing, due to some neural trauma.
>
> Wolfspirit

Hmm... this spatial map thingamajigger wouldn't have anything to do with the "phantom limb" sensation that amputees have?

Nyperold