[MD] Mystics and Brains

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[Craig previously] 
> Many changes have occurred in the past.

[Platt] 
> If the past can change, please change...

That changes have occurred in the past does not mean someone can change the past.  "You cannot change the past" is not an empirical statement like "You cannot change the orbit of Earth".  Rather it is a grammatical statement (in Wittgenstein's sense) that in our language we give no sense to "changing the past". 

[Platt] 
> Nobody experienced the [tetonic] plates crashing into each other, but somebody theorized 
> that the event occured and somehow you became familiar with the theory. So IT only 
> resides in your present memory, and the memory of others who know about the 
> theory. 

If IT refers to the theory then what you say is true.  But if IT refers to the crashing tetonic plates, then no.  

[Platt] 
> When and if you manage to escape the present as you go about your daily life, 
> do let us know your secret.

Again, "You cannot escape the present" is not an empirical statement like "You cannot escape from Alcatraz".  It shows "escaping the present" has no use in (the expected language-game of) the language.
Craig