What happens to 'me' when I sleep? - Post 2

"Prof. Earlshaw," I continued, "now that you are back from your trip to New Zealand," I want to ask you whether you want to continue our discussions." 

"Documenting them you mean," he laughed. "We are having discussions anyway. But how much of that can we ventilate? Well, let's sketch out what we would like to. Shall I put it down on this paper napkin?"

"Sure," I agreed. 

"Last time we were about to speak of a distance in the mind-space. Am I right?" 

"Yes, certainly," I nodded. "Mathematicians call it a metric. So the question is whether we can introduce a metric in mental-space. And then there arises the issue of a geometry in that space..." 

"I wish you wouldn't bring mathematics into it. We could get lost in the details and miss the essentials," he pointed out. 

"I am not bringing mathematics into this. I merely wanted to clarify that mental-space being like any of the spaces we study in mathematics, it could perhaps be instructive to find whether we can measure and not merely estimate distances. After all in your work you mention that the form, shape and size of a mental object has an effect on the emotions experienced by a person..." I countered. 

"Yes, yes, that's right. But we wouldn't want to prompt mathematicians to pick up these half-precise statements and take off on a tangent." 

"I am sure there is no such danger," I went on. "Anyway let's get to the point. You mentioned that in your OBE you actually felt the mind to be distinct from the body. If I may point out, in what manner is it different from a hallucination?"

"Oh, that's no problem. My students and I have precise tests to distinguish perceptions from hallucinations. Shall I tell you about them now or would you have them later?" 

"Perhaps we could come back to it a little later. At the moment I will take you on faith." 

"Sure, let me know when you feel the need." he replied. 

"Yes, as I said, in my OBE I experienced a distance-like feeling. I could almost carry a scale around there. And I am sure if I tried measuring things there I would be able to do it just like in real space. But I think, mark you, I think, not experienced, that a copy of the real space gets carried over into mental space. Since we represent all our perceptions in that space. I am curious to find out the extent of this copy. I mean, the question is, "is all of real space represented in the mind-space? What if only a finite extent is?"

"Prof, that would be going into thinking!" I laughed. 

"Yes, yes, thinking. But can we really avoid it now. The pleasures of thinking! Let's go into it a bit. Just a little to quiet our curiosity. In a snap we can return back. I promise, after this I will give you only experiential stuff!"

"Well, that's just fine. It is your game we are interested in primarily here. So have your flights of thinking," I laughed.

"It's like a cup of tea to me," he laughed in turn. "How about me taking such tea breaks between?"

"That's a great way to put it," I agreed....