u/elephantastic3000

I'm not a firm believer in dualism (I'm quite a skeptic), but the bias of modern science really has me annoyed. It's nowhere near as simple as "brain creates experience - case closed".

1. Materialism currently has no validated model of how the brain produces consciousness at all, despite acting as if they knew it all.

Both leading materialist theories of consciousness (IIT and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory) failed key pre-registered predictions when directly tested against each other. The study is called "Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness". That's a real crisis.

2. Personality change from brain injury is constantly overstated.

Newer research (like Pinto et al., 2017, published in Brain) has debunked the "two minds" narrative of the Split-Brain phenomenon, for example. Patients retain a completely unified sense of self. The glitches right after surgery are just motor misfires (alien hand syndrome) due to damaged hardware that eventually rewires itself.

3. Related to personality changes, there's also a huge information and quotation bias.

The dramatic story of Phineas Gage's supposed personality shift after a severe head injury is a poorly-sourced, heavily embellished 19th-century anecdote that's uncritically repeated as textbook fact. Well-documented NDEs, Dr. Stevenson's highly methodical reincarnation research or subjects like Chico Xavier, however, are dismissed as purely anecdotal and thus irrelevant.

4. But chemicals / anesthesia / blows to the head / electric stimulation alter consciousness.

That famous argument is often presented as a direct proof for materialism. But why? It's equally consistent with the dualist approach. A radio, to use that analogy, distorts sound once you damage it (or shuts down once you mute it) without producing the music. Correlation between brain state and consciousness doesn't resolve which model is correct.

I lost the absolute love of my life. This isn't just empty words, we really mean the world to each other, met almost seven years ago and married. I haven't eaten in 10 days, I feel like a disembowelled animal, I lie on the floor crying, unable to breathe, then go back to absolute numbness.

I cared for him 24/7 since his stage IVb lung cancer in august 25. The diagnosis absolutely crushed me while he kept his spirits up. We live in Germany and since day 1 the healthcare system did its best to delay treatment. The hospital butched his surgery (his bone broke due to metastasis). I chose this hospital because the one in our hometown had sent us home without proper diagnostics after 8 hours of waiting. My decision, that surgery, cost him months and months of pain and depression and being unable to walk.

I had to find an oncologist by myself while he was still in hospital. We waited for the first appointment for almost a month. I panicked all the time but they told us we were already classified "urgent". It took more than two months from biopsy to his first chemo.

The team constantly ignored his symptoms, we were were unhappy there, it was so overcrowded, we were just a number. But the nurses kept telling us it's the same everywhere. I contacted two extremely well-reputed university hospitals, both refused to treat us since we had our local doctor. One "expert" approved of the chosen chemo, one questioned whether the drug was the right one.

Long and extremely painful story short, the oncologist treated my husband's cancer like a usual tumor while he had a mixed type. My panic disappeared at first when a CT scan in December showed massive regression ... but then they switched from chemo to immune therapy and it progressed insanely fast. They wanted us to join a trial, the paperwork took them weeks, then we were excluded due to my husband's bad health. Which only declined because of all the waiting.

I feel so fucking, insanely guilty because I chose that oncologist in the first place. Because we stayed there, although we didn't feel well-cared for. Yes, I tried to find better care, but I should have tried harder. Yes, I was with him for All These 9 months, but I didn't save him. He could have gotten so mich more time. He trusted me with all medical decisions because I did lots of research at sleepless nights. Now he's... just gone. And I can't reload and undo those retarded doctor's decisions. I HAD an ill feeling. I didn't act upon it. I can never forgive myself for that.