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August 30, 2006
Not in your head?
They wired up some Carmelite nuns, asked them to get mystical and found...
Rather than reveal a spiritual centre in the brain, a module of neural circuits specifically designed for religious experience, the study demonstrated that a dozen different regions of the brain are activated during a mystical experience.
In other words, mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems normally implicated in functions such as self-consciousness, emotion and body representation.
In the past, some researchers went as far as to suggest the possibility of a specific brain region designed for communication with God. This latest research discredits such theories.
Speculation about the God spot was triggered when a team at the University of California, San Diego, saw that people with temporal-lobe epilepsy were prone to religious hallucinations.
This led Michael Persinger, a neuropsychologist at Laurentian University in Canada, to stimulate emporal lobes artificially to see if he could induce a religious state. He found that he could create a "sensed presence".
Also of interest is a short sidebar relating some other scientific research that's used religious women as a data set.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
I always worry when I see things like this that they will try to categorize mystical experiences as a disease of the brain.
It's bad enough that a modern day mystic would be thrown into the looney bin. For heaven's sake, Fr. Amorth's comments that he believes Hitler and Stalin were possessed is drawing all kinds of fire in the comment box under one of the articles on the topic.
People don't believe in the mystical any more. It's troubling. Not everything can be reduced to science, even if science can help us to understand the physiological side of the experience.
Posted by: Steve at Aug 30, 2006 10:25:30 AM
"They wired up some Carmelite nuns, asked them to get mystical..."
That is the most interesting sentence (fragment) I have read today.
Scientist: "Could you get mystical, please?"
Nun: "Okay."
:D
Posted by: naptown at Aug 30, 2006 10:41:55 AM
Sounds like a dance song.
Get down on your knees!
Get mystical!
Posted by: Maureen at Aug 30, 2006 11:48:40 AM
Nothing--and I mean nothing--gets my blood pressure up like the way these stories are reported. When I go to the science section of Barnes & Noble I see more books on religion there than in the religion section. They have very modest titles like "Religion Explained" and they tell us with the utmost certainty that it is scientifically proven that God does not exist. Why? Well, you see, when people have religious experiences certain parts of their brain are active. Therefore, belief in God is a fiction caused by certain neural processes.
Poppycock. Balderdash. Sheer tomfoolery.
When people see bowling balls certain regions of their brain are active. Therefore, belief in bowling balls is a fiction caused by certain neural processes. Oh, wait . . .
But, you say, we have independent evidence that bowling balls exist so discovering the neural processes that correspond with perception of bowling balls is no evidence against their existence.
Then take the case of numbers. When people understand mathematical propositions certain parts of their brain are active. Therefore, belief in the existence of numbers is a fiction caused by certain neural processes.
We know this is a bad argument because we know that there is some object of mathematical knowledge. What we don't know, and what philosophers debate, is whether numbers exist in the mind only or whether they are abstract objects that really exist external to the mind. But which of these theories is correct is determined independently of neuroscience. Who would deny that our brains are active when we think about these things? The question is WHAT are we thinking about when we think about these things. That is what the question of God is about. Are we thinking about a mere idea or about a really existing object? Neuroscience has nothing to say about this.
The neuroscientist interviewed in the article says "This does not diminish the meaning and value of such an experience, and neither does it confirm or disconfirm the existence of God." And yet, the headline of the story is "Nuns prove God is not figment of the mind". Argh!!!!!!
Posted by: Brad C at Aug 30, 2006 11:58:34 AM
Brad C,
Could you get mystical, please?
Posted by: naptown at Aug 30, 2006 12:26:33 PM
In "The Varieties of Religious Experience," William James makes what is essentially the point that Brad C makes.
Posted by: Dan at Aug 30, 2006 1:59:35 PM
"They wired up some Carmelite nuns, asked them to get mystical..." As if mysticism (at least the way I understand it) could be an induced state!
I agree with Steve above when he says modern day mystics would be thrown in the looney bin. For many years I have had this feeling that if St. John of the Cross were alive today, they would have put him on Prozac.
Posted by: Mila at Aug 30, 2006 2:11:02 PM
