The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions
This is intended to be an accurate account of a Buddhist monk's travels from China to India and back in the mid-seventh century. The Tang emperor was so impressed with the account, he asked the monk (Xuangzang) to create this historical record.
In addition to accurately describing the imports, exports, geography, and culture, it also goes on at length about dealing with "naga kings" (dragons inhabiting lakes), saints flying around with supernatural power, reincarnation, reputed temple miracles, collected stories of Buddhist enlightenment or attainment, and so on.
It's a similar experience to reading the Illiad or the Odyssey, in that it gives you a perspective on how people give credibility to the fantastic, when there is no evidence.
One theory is the barrier between the conscious and subconscious mind weakens, and the subconscious begins to project into the conscious mind. That may account for visions and a variety of strange experiences. But to the perceiver, these may appear very real.
Shinzen Young says he went through a period of hallucinating giant insects that he could even touch.
So to say there's no evidence isn't entirely true for firsthand subjects, as the experiences may be as real as the rest of their perceptions. The difference with mental illness apparently lies in knowing the experiences are out-of-the-ordinary though.
There's no evidence that an arhat (saint) sat upon his chair each day and flew out over the lake to have lunch and tea with the naga king in the lake. One day, a disciple of the saint got overly curious and hid under the chair. The dragon (naga) king, sensing the disciple invited him to the luncheon, but fed the saint heavenly rice, while giving mere human food to the unexpected guest. A few grains of the heavenly rice fell into the plate of the disciple, who, upon tasting them, became incensed that he was not fed the heavenly rice also.
The disciple summoned all his past good deeds and willed that the naga king die. That very day, the naga kind developed a headache, and died in the night. As the disciple was sleeping, he too died that night and was reincarnated as the naga king. Because of the slight, he began to cause storms to flood the kingdom.
The local king came to the lake and threatened the new dragon saying he would drain the lake and deprive the dragon of its home. The dragon was cowed and the weather became pleasant again, and the dragon made offerings to the king thereafter, except every once in a while he'd have a temper tantrum and need to be threatened again.
Xuangzang did not experience these things. He was told this story by others as an explanation for the climate changes experienced by the local tribe (kingdom).
I don't think we're talking about transcendental experiences here, nor panpsychism, nor hallucinations. I think we're talking about complete confabulations constructed to explain the ordinary world.
Another example was the tale of a king who, needing to leave his country for a diplomatic mission, left is brother in charge as regent. His brother, expecting court intrigue, supposedly had himself castrated that very night. He placed his bits in a box and gave them to the king to take with him on the journey. He bid the king that he should not open the box until his return.
When the king returned one of the other advisors to the court accused the brother of having an affair with the king's wife. The king summoned his brother to execute him. As the brother entered the court, he begged only that the king examine the contents of the box, and take that as explanation and proof of his innocence.
The king, seeing the bits in the box, forgave his brother. After a time, because of the brother's holiness, his genitals grew back.
I got a laugh out of this story, as it's clear to me that the brother had someone else castrated and claimed the bits in the box were his. But the story is presented as "this totally happened."
So I don't think we're talking about the same kinds of things at all.
Oh stuff like that. Yeah it's surprising just how gullible people are. Unfortunately you've only got to look at politics today to see not much has changed.
This is intended to be an accurate account of a Buddhist monk's travels from China to India and back in the mid-seventh century. The Tang emperor was so impressed with the account, he asked the monk (Xuangzang) to create this historical record.
In addition to accurately describing the imports, exports, geography, and culture, it also goes on at length about dealing with "naga kings" (dragons inhabiting lakes), saints flying around with supernatural power, reincarnation, reputed temple miracles, collected stories of Buddhist enlightenment or attainment, and so on.
It's a similar experience to reading the Illiad or the Odyssey, in that it gives you a perspective on how people give credibility to the fantastic, when there is no evidence.