The question that helps when life loses meaning? Prof. Artur Szutta

Artur describes this as his personal method. He gives the example of NDEs: some people reject them because they don't fit their materialist worldview, but he chooses to explore them because they might be true. He admits that it's difficult to maintain balance, and that emotions can interfere. He references John Rawls as the originator of the term. This method is essentially a systematic way to achieve cognitive consistency.

Artur admits that he struggles with this: when someone irritates him, his first reaction is to dismiss them, but he tries to remind himself that they might have a point. He contrasts this with the 'uncle at the party' who knows everything. He ties it to the 'last page' metaphor: since we haven't seen the final page, we must hold our interpretations lightly. This practice is not about relativism but about acknowledging the limits of our knowledge.

Artur shares his personal story of being captivated by Moody's book at 16. He notes that some people dismiss NDEs out of hand, while others accept them uncritically. He advocates a middle path: look for cases with corroborating evidence, such as patients reporting events they couldn't have perceived. He mentions the DMT hypothesis but suggests it might be a mechanism for accessing a deeper reality rather than just a hallucinogen. He also highlights the transformative moral effects, which he considers evidence of their authenticity.

He recounts how his mother hid the book, but he found it and couldn't stop reading. He notes that some people are resistant to such accounts, while others are overly credulous. He argues that the best evidence for NDEs is cases where people report verifiable information they couldn't have known. He mentions the DMT hypothesis but suggests it might be a receptor for a broader reality. He then tells the story of a ruthless businessman who, during an NDE, experienced the suffering of all those he had harmed, leading him to apologize and start a charity. This illustrates the transformative potential: seeing the full consequences of one's actions. He also references the 'Mission Impossible' thought experiment to suggest that our brains might be receivers of a deeper reality.