I think the issue is understanding how the gandhabba (mental body) trapped inside the physical body experiences the external world. That must be understood before understanding how gandhabba recognizes things in the external world (saññā).
So, the first step is: How does the gandhabba receive information about the external world? How does it see someone standing in front of the physical body?
Facts:
- Gandbabba consists of only a hadaya vatthu (seat of the mind) and five pasada rupa (cakkhu, sota, ghana, jivha, kaya.)
- If the gandhabba is OUTSIDE the physical body (as in out-of-body experiences OBE/NDE), it can see, hear, and think. Here, seeing and hearing happen via mechanisms we don’t understand.
- But when the gandhabba is INSIDE the physical body, it is fully shielded. Take just vision first. To see something, the physical eyes must work. And that light signal must be transmitted to the brain via optical nerves and processed by the brain. The brain MUST pass that information to the gandhabba (by a mechanism we don’t fully understand.)
- Sometimes, via accidents or due to other medical reasons, one of those three components (physical eyes, optical nerves, brain function) may permanently or temporarily stop.
- If the brain function stops (temporarily) then the patient cannot see, hear, or respond in any way. That is what happened to the woman in the following video. She temporarily lost brain function.
Notes:
1. The woman’s gandhabba may have come out of the paralyzed body at some point. It was in the room when Dr. Greyson came and followed him to the other room where her friend was. The gandhabba was watching and listening to the conversation between her friend and Dr. Greyson.
- So, she was able to see with her gandhabba body. Can there be any doubts about that?
2. Once medical treatment restored her brain function, she was able to recall the conversation and tell Dr. Greyson it in great detail. She not only heard but also saw the full details. That is why she noticed the stain on Dr. Greyson’s tie!
- The gandhabba coming out of the physical body is not of common occurrence. However, he mentioned (maybe in another video) that about 10% of all people have experienced such an OBE. It is more common when patients undergo heart operations because the hadaya vatthu in the mental body overlaps the physical heart.
- If anyone in this forum has experienced OBE, it would be nice to hear from them.
Ask if there are any questions. In the next comment, I will go to the next step. This is critical to understand.
