This topic is about the difference between how we see the world and how it really is.
We each have our own way.
Some of us try to be mostly rational.
Others, prefer a more religious, spiritual or mystical approach.
I'd say most ordinary people (non-specialists) mix the two.
With that premise in mind, I say the following:
Dropping an egg on the floor tests the integrity of the egg well-enough as measured against gravity :)
Life gives us daily updates in the form of successes and failures for our policies.
If we can't measure the difference; boy!--we are in sad shape indeed.
Believe what we will, we still live in the real world and what happens to us proceeds from confrontations unavoidable.
The Christian Scientist can die from an illness which (to him) does not exist.
The Hindu can starve to death in a pasture full of sacred cattle.
The Jehovah's Witness can sell his house and Pioneer full time as he tears the pages from his 1975 calendar in exasperation.
And many is the parent who prays for mercy over the child who dies.
To think or not think is our choice. The content of our thought can be real or illusory. The progress report comes at the end of each day as we lie in bed and count the costs of our beliefs.
The Mystic may chide us for our reliance on reality; but, he always leaves through the doorway.
When we evaluate our belief system "who" or "what" is doing the evaluating but the mind using the belief software itself!
If I put on dark glasses and look outside I might think it is late evening when it is high noon. I'd need outside information added to my visual information to correctly conclude the difference.
Your "states of consciousness" are not objective. They are subjective. That means nothing except that I CAN'T TEST THEM and neither can anybody else to give you the OUTSIDE information to tell you what color glasses you are viewing with.
That is the essential core of the differences between one mode of thinking and the other.
YOU ASSERT something which others cannot test. That is what makes it seemingly useful to you and not at all useful to me.
As Narkissos once posted: A post-mortem reward strikes me as one of the most shallow, self-deluding and egocentrical ways to relate to our life and death. There are many others which all boil down to the idea of leaving some personal trace or print in the ongoing world -- transmitting our genome.
Everything we have that means anything to us is produced as the result of non-contradictory measurements. This includes our bank accounts, our financial data, our health insurance and all our technology.
If I make a claim about my feelings it isn't measurable by an objective standard. My hallucinations, wrong opinions, beliefs and daydreams are not available for testing by a disinterested party.
Science is rational because there is a measurable ratio between the claims and the testing and the data. Anybody anywhere can look at it and repeat the experiment. In fact, they MUST have repeatable results or it isn't considered science!
With MYSTICAL claims, you get to pull anything you want out of your ass and nobdy can disprove it because it is subjective and (conveniently) unavailable for testing. It is mere assertion.
That is why Mystics get all hot and bothered when you pin them down as to the proof behind their irrational beliefs. They don't wish to face the imaginary nature of their emotionally charged values attached to mere wishful thinking. So, they seek to devalue the power of the mind by claiming ridiculously that NOTHING can truly be known by anybody.
WE TEST the expressions of people's professed values by what ACTIONS back them up. A man who says he loves his girlfriend, but, who cheats on her represents his "love" in a way that devalues its exchange rate, wouldn't you say?
Love which is "rational" is measurable by the effort in real time/goods/services exchanged to represent that value.
Love which is mystical would be a mere assertion of "feeling" detached from actual proof of the value UNTIL and UNLESS the standard of behavior is determined.
There is no accountability when you blur the difference between mental masturbation and the real world. Science is essentially an accounting procedure. Measuring, weighing, quantifying actually existing phenomena is a FAR CRY from merely alluding to them with language.
My ultimate goal or purpose is a long life well-lived with as much happiness as I can obtain. I pursue the values and measure the rewards to sharpen my skills in thinking.
The "meaning" of life is what we choose for it to mean. The end result will test the means we used.
People with a larger and larger capacity for goodness will affect the lives of others in many ways unknown to the smaller and smaller capacity person who cannot seem to figure out how life is lived.
We monitor our contexts or we are lost to progress in achievement. How we measure the treasure is by careful choice of standards which simply must include the actual things that happen to ourselves and those around us.
Life is practical. It has to be because we cannot escape the practical result of our actions.
But, too, we must see ourselves as responsible for what we espouse. If we fool ourself that is bad enough. If we take down others in the process that is evil.