One of the oldest tricks used by people who don't understand something is to claim that they are "starting to understand" the thing. Very often someone making such a claim has no understanding at all of the topic. For example, there might occur a conversation like this on a blind date:
Sally: I'm looking for a very smart person, like someone smart enough to understand quantum mechanics.
Willy: Yes, I've done some reading on that. I'm starting to understand it.
The odds here are ten to one that Willy has no understanding of quantum mechanics.
We see such language sometimes used by scientists and science journalists. There will be a mention of some phenomenon that is not at all explicable under the assumptions of today's scientists. But we will be reassured with a claim that "scientists are starting to understand" the phenomenon. Typically the justification for the claim is entirely groundless.
An example is a recent Discover magazine article with a subtitle groundlessly claiming that "Now, scientists are starting to understand what causes out-of-body experiences." Out-of-body experiences are experiences in which report floating out of their bodies, often seeing their bodies from a position high above their bodies. Out-of-body experiences can occur during near-death experiences, or when there is no danger of death. Some people report them occurring spontaneously, and a small number of people claim to be able to produce them at will through methods such as relaxation techniques.
In the Discover article we read about this doubly-ridiculous methodology:
"Parvizi and his team worked with nine epilepsy patients who had electrodes inserted into their brains as part of their treatment for severe seizures. With their consent, the researchers stimulated regions of the patients' brains with electrical pulses and asked whether the patients experienced self-dissociation, or out-of-body experiences, as a result."
In the scientific paper described above, a paper entitled "Causal evidence for the processing of bodily self in the anterior precuneus." we hear quotes from the brain-zapped people, and we get some carefully selected fragments trying to make it sound like one or two of them had something a bit like an out-of-body experience. But a review of the full spreadsheet showing the questions scientists asked and the answers patients gave provides no support for the claim that anything like an out-of-body experience occurred. The doctors interviewing the patients again and again asked "leading questions" as if they were trying to encourage reports that would sound something like out-of-body experiences or near-death experiences. There are several things objectionable about this methodology:
(1) The overwhelming majority of out-of-body experiences (more than 95%) occur to people who do not have the fairly rare disease of epilepsy and are not suffering seizures. Also, all of the more severe seizures result in unconsciousness rather than experiences that people remember. A person having a "grand mal" tonic-clonic seizure will not remember the experience at all. So the idea of trying to explain out-of-body experiences by artificial brain zapping is fundamentally misguided.
(2) The people who report having out-of-body experiences were not people having their brains stimulated by electrodes. It makes no sense to zap some part of a brain with electricity and offer that as an explanation for out-of-body experiences that do not occur under such stimulation. Doing that is as silly as twisting someone's arm, asking them whether this makes them feel sad, and then offering arm twisting as an explanation for depression.
(3) The doctors asking questions of the patients repeatedly used "leading questions" as if they were trying to elicit responses from patients that sounded like something you would hear in an account of a near-death experience or out-of-body experience.
Hiding their "dirty linen" in a place where almost no one would tend to find it, the authors of the paper have placed their list of questions and answers outside of the main paper, in a spreadsheet attachment within their supplemental information document. You can only get this list of questions and answers if you are diligent enough to (1) click on the Supplemental Information link in the pdf file of their main paper, and (2) then also click on the Supplemental Information link on the left of the URL that arises, and (3) then click on the "Download .xlsx" link allowing you to download a spreadsheet. You will then get a spreadsheet in which you can see how "leading questions" were used to try to get spooky-sounding answers from the poor brain-zapped subjects (but only if you have software allowing you to read spreadsheets).
Below are some examples of how "leading questions" were used, after some part of the brains of these very sick people was needlessly electrically zapped. I will put into boldface examples of "leading question" improperly pulling the respondents in some particular direction. The duration of these zaps varied between 1 second and 10 seconds.
Rows 194-202:
Patient: Yeah I feel it
Doctor: What happened?
Patient: I feel I don't know how to say it but my body lift up for a minute, just for a second
Doctor: Ah, is that right, I see. You were inside your body or did your body leave you?
Patient: My body leave me
Doctor: Your body left you. Where did you end up being if your body left you?
Patient: In the bed
Doctor: Ok, but where did your body leave
Patient: Up
We have here some glaring examples of "leading questions." After being brain zapped, a patient reports his body lifting up for just a second, which sounds like a reflexive jolt response you might get from being zapped. The doctor then asks the extremely suggestive question "did your body leave you," thereby planting in the patient's mind the suggestion of an out-of-body experience. The patient is then asked where his body ended up, and is given an answer of "in the bed." Not accepting this answer, an answer suggesting no actual out-of-body experience, the doctor then speaks like he is refusing to accept the answer, and asks the additional "leading question" of "where did you body leave?" Any answers received from such leading questions are worthless, and merely show the power of suggestion.
Rows 230-247
Doctor: What happened?
Patient: Swing
Doctor: Do you feel like you're floating like on a boat up and down or side to side?
Patient: Side to side. I just feel like I'm swinging
Doctor: Is the entire world swinging or only you?
Patient: Only me because I feel like I'm outside and I would sit down
Doctor: If you were outside and this happened you would sit down?
Patient: Yeah
After a 5-second brain zap resulting in a "No change" report, the next statements (after additional brain zaps) are these:
Patient: Right now, yeah
Doctor: What is happening? Is it you or is it the world?
Patient: It's me. I feel inside like something
Doctor: Keep yes closed please. Was the feeling of floating the same or different?
Patient: The same.
Doctor: Is this feeling something you would want more or less of?
Patient: Less of, I feel like it's unsafe
Doctor: Unsafe, but do you feel like you're free like you're relieved like a bird?
Patient: No, I feel more confused
We have here some more glaring examples of "leading questions." After being brain zapped, a patient merely uses the word "swing" to describe how it felt. Without any provocation, the doctor then asks "do you feel like you're floating," just as if he was trying to plant in the subject's mind some idea of something like an out-of-body experience. Later "out of nowhere" without anything to justify such a question, the doctor asks "was the feeling of floating the same or different," even though the patient's previous response was not anything having to do with floating, but a vague report of "feel inside like something." Then the doctor speaks like he is trying to plant some idea of flying into the patient's mind, by asking if he felt like a bird. Any responses given to such "leading questions" are worthless, merely showing the power of suggestion.
Rows 253-255:
Patient: Yes, yes, I'm feeling it - the swing. Like a cold feeling. I can feel something come up - it's cold in my mind.
Doctor: Are you feeling the floating?
Patient: Yeah.
Again, we have a glaring examples of a "leading question." Utilizing the power of suggestion, the doctor asks, "are you feeling the floating?" to a patient just after he reported no such thing, but a mere cold or swinging feeling. The "yeah" answer is worthless as evidence, and merely shows the power of suggestion.
Row 309:
Again "out of nowhere" the doctor tells the patient "last time you mentioned were floating," even though the patient never independently or spontaneously said anything about floating, but merely responded (like someone under the influence of suggestion) to "leading questions" asked by the doctor, questions that introduced the word "floating."
Row 408-415
Doctor: What happened?
Patient: The same thing as before like I couldn't really focus.
Doctor: Same thing as before you can't focus on anything. Okay. Did you mind become absent?
Patient: Kind of
Doctor: Kind of? Did the position where you were lying, did it change?
Patient: *shakes head*
Doctor: Not at all?
Patient: *shakes head*
The doctor here is clearly asking more "leading questions." He sounds like he is trying to get out of the patient some report that the patient has floated out of his body, but the patient does not agree with the suggested idea.
Row 416 - 433
We have more attempts by a doctor to get answers that might suggest floating out of the body or a change in body vertical position, but the patient says nothing in agreement with such suggestions.
Rows 483-488
Doctor: What happened?
Patient: I don't really feel my body
Doctor: You don't feel your body? Okay. Did you lift up at all this time?
Patient: Kind of.
Doctor: Kind of? Right now or before?
Patient: Right now.
The doctor here is clearly asking another "leading question." Without any provocation, he asks about whether a "lifting up" occurred, as if he was hoping to get some report of a mind floating out a body. The "kind of" response is worthless as evidence, being probably the mere result of suggestion.
Rows 591-595
Patient: That was much stronger.
Doctor: Got it. Do you think you can explain more? What would cause this feeling if you're up and going, and running, and walking?
Patient: I don't know.
Doctor: Have you seen the movies of astronauts of space? Have you seen them floating?
Patient: Not that last one, no. That was not painful, but my heart was beating really fast, and my hands were sweating.
The doctor here is clearly asking another "leading question." Without any provocation, he reminds the patient of movies of astronauts floating in zero gravity, as if he was trying to get the patient to say he experienced something like that. This time the patient does not fall for such a suggestion.
Lines 621- 636
Doctor: What happened?
Patient: [inaudible] lightheaded.
Doctor: lightheaded?
Patient: Yeah. That's the only way I can describe it.
Doctor: Tell me a little bit more about this lightheadedness.
Patient: Not like you're gonna pass out of anything, it just makes my head feel like compressed.
Doctor: What's happening?
Patient: Yeah, it's just kinda like got like thrown up on the clouds.
Doctor: Thrown up on the clouds.
Patient: Yeah, like higher up floating.
Doctor: Floating in the clouds?
Patient: Yeah.
Doctor: Was that you, the whole you or part of you?
Patient: No, just my head. Just this portion [gestures to face head area]
We have here no actual report of an out-of-body experience. The brain zapping has merely produced some dizziness or a "lightheaded" feeling. Continuing to press for descriptions rather than just sticking with the original description, the doctor has got from the patient a statement that "it's just kinda like got like thrown up on the clouds." There is no reason to think that this weak "just kinda like" claim is anything more than a lyrical or poetic simile. When asked whether this involved the whole body or just part of him, the patient says "just my head." This does not match what is reported in out-of-body experiences, which are very vivid experiences no one describes using "just kinda like" language.
Lines 659 -- 660
Doctor: You were out there floating?
Patient: Yeah, kind of.
Here the doctor "out of the blue" without any provocation asks the patient whether he was floating. The patient had previously reported no such thing in response to the latest brain zap, merely previously reporting (in response to "leading questions") some euphoria and dizziness. The "kind of" response to a leading question has no evidence value.
Lines 728- 731
Doctor: Did you feel any floating?
Patient: No.
Doctor: Any change in your perception of time?
Patient: No.
Another "leading question" asked without any provocation.
Lines 752 - 765
Doctor: What happened?
Patient: Uh just a pronounced increase in that lightheaded feeling.
Doctor: Tell me more about that lightheaded feeling.
Patient: It almost feels like low blood sugar but not bad right. It's sort of like floating.
Doctor: Tell me more.
Patient: It's kind of like floating but with a heightened sense of clarity, I guess.
Doctor: Can you elaborate on that? I'm purposely not looking at your face when you're reporting. Cause we don't want to nod or to say anything to lead you. We don't want to bias you.
Patient: Just like a heightened sense of clarity in terms of like when I was like looking at the clock it just made the clock and the pictures around it seem more robust, I guess. Like an awareness of a kind. Seemed more coherent or clear.
Doctor: Was it a positive feeling or negative feeling?
Patient: Oh positive.
Doctor: Did your vision change now?
Patient: No.
Doctor: Did we cause blurriness this time?
Patient: No.
Here we have a classic example of a doctor asking a "leading question" as if he were trying to move the patient's testimony away from what was originally reported. The patient does not report floating out of his body, but merely "that floating feeling in your body," which he then walks back by saying " I wouldn't necessarily call it floating." The doctor tries hard to push the patient towards saying that he floated out of his body, but it's a failure. After getting a few "yes" answers (probably involving the mere power of suggestion) the doctor asks whether the patient was out of his bed, and the answer is "no." So there's no out-of-body experience here.
Lines 810 to 823:
Doctor: Okay. What exactly happened?
Patient: Like my head.. uhh.. just kinda like you're floating on clouds almost just like.. I mean I'm still here obviously but kind of like you're floating a little bit more than normal.
Doctor: Was this a positive feeling or a negative feeling?
Patient: Positive.
Doctor: You were saying a little bit on the ketamine study. How does this relate?
Patient: Just like that uhh floating. Ketamine gave me that out-of-body experience. Like it started that feeling of getting out of body but not that full-on out-of-body experience.
Doctor: Got it. Would you say that it was similar?
Patient: Yeah.
Doctor: Less intense?
Patient: For sure less intense.
The patient makes a weak claim to have felt something "just kinda like you're floating on clouds... kind of like you're floating a little bit more than normal." Seeming to engage in more attempts to stretch the patient's account into something like an out-of-body experience, the doctor asks the patient to compare this brain zapping to his experience with a hallucinogenic drug. The patient first says that ketamine "gave me that out-of-body experience" but then seems to walk back that statement, apparently saying that ketamine merely "started that feeling of getting out of body but not that full-on out-of-body experience." No matter how you interpret the language, there is no report here of an out-of-body experience during brain zapping.
- The paper incorrectly states, "Three of the nine participants reported a sense of self-dissociation after the stimulation of the right aPCu." Excluding one statement with a question mark and the word "maybe," none of the patients reported such a thing, judging from the statements contained in the spreadsheet listing their statements. One of the patients reported that it "kind of feels like slipping, but it's not my whole body," which is not a report of self-dissociation. (In Table 2 the paper includes quotes from a patient S09 that do not match anything in the question-and-answer spreadsheet, so we don't know whether those statements occurred from brain zapping, and don't know whether they are responses to "leading questions." We read, "When the subject was asked if he was floating in space, the patient replied: 'No. I was floating more in myself.' ")
- The paper incorrectly states, "Participant S01 reported feelings of floating up in the clouds and losing focus associated with an analogy of ‘frontal lobe getting dumber.’" The responses of Participant S01 are recorded in rows 3 to 36 of the spreadsheet. Participant S01 did not report anything like "feelings of floating up in the clouds" nor any feeling at all of floating. His statement about the frontal part of the brain was "My frontal cortex got almost dumber?" which is a question, not an assertion.
- The science paper incorrectly states, " Participant S08 also reported a state of being thrown up on the clouds and out-of-body." Judging from the spreadsheet statements attributed to this patient, that claim is untrue. The patient never claimed to be out of his body, and merely made (among many of his statements reporting dizziness or lightheadedness in a variety of ways) the very weak poetical-sounding statement that "it's just kinda like got like thrown up on the clouds." No statement having the qualifier of "just kinda" (i.e. "just kind of") should be regarded seriously as evidence.
- The paper misleadingly states, "Both S08 and S01 reported that their experience reminded them of their previous dissociative feelings on psychedelics." The statement by S01 was weak and only occurred in response to a "leading question" by a doctor, asking "how does this compare to what you felt yesterday on ketamine," to which the patient answered "probably pretty similar" because it made him feel "just like a sedated monkey," which is not a report of a brain zap producing a feeling of dissociation. Patient S08 also mentioned psychedelics only after being pushed towards such a comparison by a doctor. We read this on rows to 801 to 804, in which patient S08 is questioned about a brain zap just given:
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