"What is this alt.out-of-body newsgroup?"
Newsgroup History and Purpose
The alt.out-of-body newsgroup, created in September of 1992, was
established to provide a forum for exchanging ideas about out-of-body
experiences and for sharing actual accounts of such experiences. It is the
successor to the alt.oobe newsgroup, established in July of 1992 for a
similar purpose. (The older newsgroup still exists on some systems, but it
is no longer in wide-spread use. The name "alt.out-of-body" was chosen
following a discussion about an appropriate name and a subsequent vote in
alt.config.)
Much of the discussion of out-of-body experiences has centered around the
recounting of experiences and speculation on the nature of those
experiences. Some articles have questioned whether the experiences are of
an hallucinatory nature or purely a function of biochemical processes that
occur in the brain, and, at the other extreme, some have linked them with
notions of the existence of an immortal soul and other ideas generally
associated with religious interpretations of human existence. Most readers
are intrigued by the thought of being able to have and control OBEs, and
see them as a potentially interesting experience, though some smaller
number of people taking part in discussions are interested in trying to
figure out their nature and function and their possible implications for
the understanding of what it means to be fully human.
Mailing List
The alt.out-of-body newsgroup is linked with a parallel mailing list,
provided for the benefit of those who do not have access to Internet /
Usenet or to the newsgroup. To subscribe to this list, send a message
containing the text:
- subscribe alt.out-of-body Your Name
to the address "listserv@gnosys.svle.ma.us." Postings can be made to the
mailing list / newsgroup by sending to the address
"alt.out-of-body@gnosys.svle.ma.us."
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