Persinger thus argues that religious experience and belief in God are merely the results of electrical anomalies in the human brain. He opines that the religious bents of even the most exalted figures—for instance, Saint Paul, Moses, Muhammad and Buddha—stem from such neural quirks. The popular notion that such experiences are good, argues Persinger in his book Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs (Praeger Publishers, 1987), is an outgrowth of psychological conditioning in which religious rituals are paired with enjoyable experiences. Praying before a meal, for example, links prayer with the pleasures of eating. God, he claims, is nothing more mystical than that.
Don't forget that there are scary/frightening mystical experiences also. I can see where the practice of pairing religious feelings with good things would make sense in creating/teaching a religion and making it popular.hypnagogue said:The notion that mystical experiences are good is sort of like the notion that laughing jovially is good, or that feeling in love is good. The experience itself is inherently positive. It's laughable to hold that you have to be conditioned in order to think it's good.
Monique said:By stimulating certain areas in the brain with electromagnetic radiation you can stimulate a "religious experience" (e.g. feeling the presence of a being when you are alone in a room). Some people might be more sensitive than others for this kind of brain stimulation.
Persinger’s chamber — one of whose visitors was the British arch-atheist Professor Richard Dawkins (he experienced nothing) — is what might be called a “mainframe” version of the portable Shakti equipment that Todd Murphy will be demonstrating at the conference.
Moridin said:http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa017&articleID=434D7C62-E7F2-99DF-37CC9814533B90D7
I found this article quite intriguing.
Mystical Misfirings
Scientists and scholars have long speculated that religious feeling can be tied to a specific place in the brain. In 1892 textbooks on mental illness noted a link between “religious emotionalism” and epilepsy. Nearly a century later, in 1975, neurologist Norman Geschwind of the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital first clinically described a form of epilepsy in which seizures originate as electrical misfirings within the temporal lobes, large sections of the brain that sit over the ears. Epileptics who have this form of the disorder often report intense religious experiences, leading Geschwind and others, such as neuropsychiatrist David Bear of Vanderbilt University, to speculate that localized electrical storms in the brain’s temporal lobe might sometimes underlie an obsession with religious or moral issues.
TLE [Temporal Lobe Epilepsy] was first recognized in 1881 by John Hughlings Jackson, who described "uncinate fits" seizures arising from the uncal part of temporal lobe and the “dreamy state."
A distinct syndrome of interictal behavior changes occurs in many patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. These changes include alterations in sexual behavior, religiosity, and a tendency toward extensive, and in some cases compulsive, writing and drawing.
Evo said:Don't forget that there are scary/frightening mystical experiences also. I can see where the practice of pairing religious feelings with good things would make sense in creating/teaching a religion and making it popular.
sneez said:As I read this thread I cannot help to wonder. Is it not yet well accepted (as far as I know it is) that thought is chemo-neuro-physi-sociological system? Our thoughts are not independent on the internal and external physical state. As we all know a thought triggers emotion which has feeling delivered by the chemical elements arriving in brain. The process works vice versa as well. One can be made angry just by exchanging ideas, one can even get angry onself just by thinking certain way. This is to ilustrate the simplest examples. Thought affects the physical and the physical can affect the thought. Why is it surprise that religious belief/experience does have physical correspondence? (any experience that can be recollect must be in physical memory, and if to be interpreted and understood certain way it must be processed by the brain..)
His contractors, who regarded him as the most efficient and capable foreman in their employ previous to his injury, considered the change in his mind so marked that they could not give him his place again. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operation, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. In this regard, his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was "no longer Gage."
The scientific basis for exploring the relationship between God and the brain is rooted in neurotheology, which is the study of the neural correlates of religious and spiritual experiences. This field combines neuroscience, psychology, and theology to understand the brain mechanisms underlying religious beliefs and practices.
No, brain imaging cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. While neurotheological studies have shown that certain brain regions are activated during religious experiences, this does not provide evidence for or against the existence of a higher power. The interpretation of these brain changes is subjective and can vary greatly among individuals.
Some of the common brain regions involved in religious experiences include the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and self-reflection, and the temporal lobes, which play a role in perception and memory. The limbic system, which is involved in emotion and motivation, also plays a role in religious experiences.
There is evidence to suggest that there may be a biological basis for religious beliefs. Studies have shown that certain genetic variations may make individuals more likely to have spiritual or religious experiences. Additionally, brain imaging studies have shown that individuals with stronger religious beliefs may have structural or functional differences in certain brain regions.
The implications of neurotheology for religion and spirituality are still being explored. Some argue that it can help us better understand the nature of religious experiences and how they impact our thoughts and behaviors. Others believe that reducing religious experiences to brain activity diminishes the significance of these experiences and the existence of a higher power. Ultimately, the intersection of neuroscience and religion is a complex and ongoing topic of discussion.