I'm not interested in trying to validate it as true, Bill. I'm interested in interpreting it, given that I have some experiential awareness of it.

I frankly don't care whether or not it's "validated", by your system or anyone else's. I accept what I experience as it comes to me, and I interpret it as best I can. Spiritual things and emotional and mental things are not to be validated and thus proven "true", they are to be experienced directly and interpreted in order to derive meaning from them.

If you don't experience them, I've got no problem with that at all.

You don't see the "basis" of my belief in a soul that is independent of the physical body, because it doesn't meet your chosen set of assumptions about reality. Fine with me. It doesn't matter. Your view of reality is fine for you, and mine is fine for me. I don't see the "basis" of voting for either the Democrats or the Republicans, nor do I see any rational basis for those 2 parties continuing to exist (given their record). Okay? You pick your basis, and I'll pick mine.

Note: When I use the word "thing" in the above context, I am referring to a subjective experience...something one experiences in a conscious way. An experience is a thing. It's not a tactile or measurable thing, but it is something that one experiences....

"some thing..." Anything that is something is some thing. ;-) Anything we can discuss is something, including any totally hypothetical concept. It's a concept, and a concept is a thing. It's a mental thing. Is it provable? Maybe, and maybe not. Do I care? No, not really.