"'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,' he said, via his keyboard.
The Belgian former engineering student, who speaks four languages, said he coped with being effectively trapped in his own body by meditating. He told doctors he had 'traveled with my thoughts into the past, or into another existence altogether'. Sometimes, he said, 'I was only my consciousness and nothing else'. "
Only his consciousness and nothing else.
I need The Red Book to come out now.
IMPORTANT EDIT: Due to a wonderfully enlightening comment posted on this entry (thank you Mark D), some new information has been brought to the forefront. My only reaction to all of this is that people have some wonderfully wild imaginations, and that despite the truth coming forward, the moment was not lost, and I am still really excited for The Red Book. The idea that perhaps this man is actually stuck in his mind with only his consciousness is still a question that is unanswered -- that idea alone is what I took from the article to begin with, and despite its validity, I think it's worth sharing.
2 comments:
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/783-this-cruel-farce-has-to-stop.html
Good counter-point article from Mark. I particularly thought these two comments had a very reasonable tone to them:
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"I think it is unethical as well as pointless to speculate about whether or not the patient, Rom Houben, is or is not communicating. Surely, if it is important enough to spend time theorizing about, it is important enough to make a run over to Belgium and visit the gentleman yourself. I'm sure there a plenty of questions that could be asked of Rom for which his assistant would not know the answers - consider that he can speak in 4 languages, for example, can she? It's easy enough to verify if you don't trust the people involved. Until it is verified, it is inappropriate to call it a farce."
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"So far everything I have read on this site is based on a couple of short video clips and comments from talking head reporters and doctors who have never seen the patient. We don't know what the raw video footage was supposed to be showing.
A blind test was apparently done to test the facilitator. I do not know the specifics of the test except that the doctor showed the patient a set of car keys then the facilitator was brought in the the patient "typed" the word key. Lets get all the facts before we jump to conclusions about this case. For my part I recommend reading and listening to NPR.ORG's stories for a little more information:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120784397
and:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120684777
Lets not fall into the trap of disinformation that we accuse others of."
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I'm sure as more information comes in regarding this, there will be a more definitive conclusion as to whether or not Rom is lucid and communicating those words, or even able to communicate at all.
If he is conscious (as the MRI testing apparently indicates) and has even a small level muscle coordination after his 3 years of rehab, I would imagine they could eventually hook him up to an apparatus similar to that of Stephen Hawking who can only communicate via predictive technology by twitching his right cheek. Very fascinating...
Also, can't wait for the "Red Book", aka Liber Novus.
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