What do atheists here think of the story of Howard Storm?

[SwedishSkinJer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Storm

I have searched high and low, but I cannot find a comprehensive skeptical response to Mr. Storm's story.  Indeed, he was an atheist before his experience, and his wife was even so surprised by the changes he underwent that she considered divorce.  Therefore, I find no compelling reason as to why he would lie and maintain a story for a significant portion of his life.  I would love to read a rebuttal to augment my own arguments against his case.

[Ihateyoumike]

Just another guy who believes that his hallucination was real. That is all.

[Kylyssa]

I think he had a hallucination that was incredibly powerful.  I had a hallucination in relation to a medical situation also.  Only mine was like a weird, comforting dream.  My mother was there even though my mother was alive and about a thousand miles away.  Despite its lack of relation to reality the hallucination seemed so real and it was incredibly emotional for me.  In the hallucination I splashed into a fountain which took away all my pain and my mother, made young again held me in her arms while the essence of all music ever made and ever to be made filled every space in every molecule of existence.  In reality, I had a punctured lung and had also lost a lot of blood.  I "remembered" this incident after I woke up from surgery.

I also once experienced scary hallucinations from a pain medication in which an ugly creature was threatening me from the drop ceiling as I lay immobilized.  My cat then roared and chased the monster away, then he turned to me and told me he'd protect me.  Another time, on morphine, I was sure someone broke in through the glass window.  I was absolutely sure at the time.

When I woke from my coma, I had recollections of horrible creatures chasing me - I'd wager based on my real life experiences with horrible creatures called humans chasing me, catching me and trying to kill me.

What's my explanation of it all?  The mind is a result of the brain, an organ which is only flesh and blood and stuff misfires in it sometimes and when the person becomes fully conscious again, he or she tries to fit it into a narrative that makes sense.  When a person feels as if he or she is dying sometimes terror sets in, sometimes a retreat into a fantasy world, most of the time something else happens.

I live with a traumatic brain injury.  I changed when my brain was damaged.  My brain is me.

[EssejSllim]

This may have something to do with why he kept with the story.

The book was originally published in 2000 and, after being noticed by author Anne Rice and supported by her, was acquired by Doubleday and re-published as a hardback book in 2005.[12] Storm has told his story to numerous audiences and appeared on NBC's Today Show,[12] The Oprah Winfrey Show,[13][14] 48 Hours,[13] Discovery Channel[13] and Coast to Coast AM.[14]

People like fame.

[SwedishSkinJer]

But the thing is, why would an atheist who had never participated in any religious ceremonies before to the extent that he had difficulties uttering a simple prayer have such a vivid hallucination with very specific religious tones?

I don't think that someone publicizing their story, especially when they believe in it sincerely, is the sign of a fame-whorer.

[Will]

He seems to have lost his objectivity. If I were to experience a sudden, vivid hallucination, even if it were quite convincing I have to assume I would still conclude that it was just a hallucination at the end of the day because of Occam's Razor. What's the least complex, most likely explanation for my experience:
a) the supernatural
b) a hallucination

The answer, of course, is b.

[Kylyssa]

I would agree that he probably actually believes it.  The hallucination I experienced which involved my mother and the fountain was incredibly compelling.  I logically knew it didn't happen but the memory is bizarrely realistic, including all sorts of sensory detail.  I think it has to do with the chemical cocktail the brain puts out in life and death situations.  The fears and pain and confusion are very potent when you think you are dying.  

This guy couldn't be insulated to the point that he'd never even heard of demons and whatnot.  Our culture is permeated by Christian mythology so even a person raised in a non-theist environment knows the mythology.  You'd have to grow up in total isolation to avoid the mythology.  

He had a bad "trip" on either his natural brain chemicals or the drugs shot into him during his treatment.

[elliebean]

Of course he really believes it; and as long as his livelihood and all the extra attention continue, he always will.

[SSY]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Storm

I have searched high and low, but I cannot find a comprehensive skeptical response to Mr. Storm's story.  Indeed, he was an atheist before his experience, and his wife was even so surprised by the changes he underwent that she considered divorce.  Therefore, I find no compelling reason as to why he would lie and maintain a story for a significant portion of his life.  I would love to read a rebuttal to augment my own arguments against his case.

How are you supposed to compose a rebuttal to someone's own unconscious dreams? Why would it even demand a rebuttal?

What approach have you taken with your own argument against it? How far have you gotten with it? Will you post what you have so far?

[Stevil]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Storm

I have searched high and low, but I cannot find a comprehensive skeptical response to Mr. Storm's story.  Indeed, he was an atheist before his experience, and his wife was even so surprised by the changes he underwent that she considered divorce.  Therefore, I find no compelling reason as to why he would lie and maintain a story for a significant portion of his life.  I would love to read a rebuttal to augment my own arguments against his case.

SwedishSkinJer, if this looks like valid conclusive proof to you, then I would recommend you find out which church he belongs to and for you to sign up to it quick, unless of course if you already belong to that church.

If you would like to have potentially similar experiences to Howard, there are a myriad of mind enhancing drugs that you could try. Good luck and best wishes for your future.

[Cycel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Storm

I have searched high and low, but I cannot find a comprehensive skeptical response to Mr. Storm's story.  Indeed, he was an atheist before his experience, and his wife was even so surprised by the changes he underwent that she considered divorce.  Therefore, I find no compelling reason as to why he would lie and maintain a story for a significant portion of his life.

Indeed he may very well have been convinced by his experience or, as Elliebean suggests, there may have been monetary considerations.  However, I think that anyone who would go to the trouble of changing their career path was perhaps sincere.  The book Inferno, written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle tells the tale of an atheist who gets drunk and accidentally kills himself.  He wakes up in Hell.  The story so disturbed me that after reading the last page I seriously considered going back to church.  The feeling lasted about two weeks.  If a work of fiction can have that kind of effect I can only imagine what a realistic hallucination might do to someone's psyche, especially following an experience that reminds one of their own mortality. On the other hand can we really trust the book?  Maybe Mr. Storm only claimed to have been an atheist.  Maybe entering seminary had been a life long dream.  Maybe his wife never nearly left him.  Oprah Winfrey would confirm, given her experience with James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, that one can't always trust the contents of a book.