In response to Bob Ryszkiewicz, I'll just repeat what I wrote, back up the thread, on the 14th November:

"I have mild epilepsy - which has given me some strange experiences. I think that I probably developed symptoms as a small child but they gradually faded as I got older and then came back in my 50s (don't know whether this is normal or not).

Occasionally, I would have temporary episodes of 'absence' or 'fugue' or whatever it's called. Twice, in the last few years, I've had full-blown fits and the doctors have now put me on medication which has virtually eliminted any symptoms (I still have to watch my diet as certain foods/drinks seem to act as triggers).

Anyway, it's the fugue/absence states that are the most 'interesting' (or alarming). In these states, which are of unknown duration, I experience a whole different, but utterly familiar, world. Don't ask me for details because when I return to 'normality' I've no recall of such details - just that I've been 'somewhere else'.

Looking at this dispassionately, it probably means that in part of my brain - probably the part connected with memory - neurons occasionally misfire and I experience false memories, or dream memories, or 'lost' memories from an earlier phase of my life.

If I was religious, or mystically inclined ... or a credulous fool (!) I could build a whole raft of crackpot 'theories' based on these experiences. I could claim contact with God, or an afterlife, or a previous life, or a parallel universe or ... well, you get the picture. But the experiences that I have had, as a result of my disability, do not allow me to claim 'proof' of anything other than that I have some abnormalities in part of my brain."

So, Bob (and GfS) I know EXACTLY what you're talking about - I just don't think that these experiences entitle me to make such bold assertions as:

"Is there an afterlife? Yes, I believe there has to be. Because of the many experiences that I've had, the people that I've met, etc. And 50,000 Buddhist Fans can't be wrong ..."