Michael Shermer's Vision

Michael Shermer has not always been a skeptic; or at least he has not been a skeptic in the way most of us mean it, a dedicated skeptic for whom being one is central to his identity. In 1979 he became a cycle racer and competed several times in the Race Across America, one of the world's longest and toughest cycle races. As its name suggests, it is a three thousand mile route from the west to east coasts of the United States. Unlike the Tour De France, it is a non-stop race, not split into stages, in which the riders sleep for about one hour in the middle of each night on a bed in their team truck. The entire route takes about eight days. Shermer came third in the 1982 event, his best performance. As I've said previously, Shermer's path to skepperhood is an interesting one. He was in the 1983 race cycling through the Loveland Pass in Colorado. He was extremely tired, as you can imagine, and also at a high altitude, about 11,000 feet. As a result he experienced an altered state of consciousness. Many people who suddenly have these experiences out of the blue turn to mystical beliefs as a way to explain it, but Shermer didn't. He thinks he immediately understood the episode for what it was and decided to learn about psychology. This is a very different reaction to Susan Blackmore, even though they both eventually ended up at the same place, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2010/10/tam-london-2010.html. I've discovered a remarkable historical document in the story of Michael Shermer. It's a news clip in which a young Shermer with a brown beard is interviewed in the saddle. It is later in the race because he's on a bridge across the river Mississippi and he describes his experience. He says: "A very strange thing happened; I mean, like a psychotic type experience. Thinking my crew were aliens from another planet trying to capture me. Sounds ridiculous, but that's what I thought." Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2_1DofIVqg. He also mentions the incident in this more recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zugGYmC6b00. Also he brings up another incident connected to one of his fellow cyclists. It's strange to think Michael Shermer might be taking the opposite path to Susan Blackmore, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-shermerlution-continues.html.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/skeptics-portal.html.